CROATIA/FILE: A commemoration ceremony is held in Croatia to mark the death of former prime minister Ivica Racan

Record ID: 574944

  • Title: CROATIA/FILE: A commemoration ceremony is held in Croatia to mark the death of former prime minister Ivica Racan
  • Date: 3rd May 2007
  • Summary: RACAN, CROATIAN PRESIDENT STJEPAN MESIC AND PARLIAMENT SPEAKER ZLATKO TOMCIC WALKING IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 18th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA6NZTRMZIXQS795WRYOQ5HMMEN
  • Story Text: Former world leaders speak at a commemoration ceremony in Zagreb to mark the death of former Croatian PM and Social Democratic leader Ivica Racan. Croatia bid farewell to its former prime minister and Social Democratic leader Ivica Racan on Wednesday (May 2) at a commemoration ceremony held in a packed concert hall in Zagreb. A number of former world leaders paid their tribute to Racan with former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder hailing him as the architect of modern Croatia.
    "Ivica Racan was, as the president (Croatian president Stjepan Mesic) already said, an architect of modern, democratic, stable and peaceful Croatia which was open towards the world. Croatia, which was a good neighbour in a turbulent neighbourhood. Croatia, whose belonging to Europe went without saying, which was always a part of Europe and whose future was in the the European Union," said Schroeder.
    Slovenia's former president Milan Kucan, Racan's old friend and fellow former communist praised Racan's European orientation following the years of international isolation during the rule of late President Franjo Tudjman in THE 1990's.
    "Ideas that one has to lose for the other to win Europe are not acceptable any more. You knew that the future for both of our countries was in European unity. That's why you stood up to open the way for Croatia out of international isolation and into European integration, and you succeeded in that. Goodbye my comrade, it was nice being your friend," said Kucan.
    Racan, a reformed communist, died aged 63 on April 29, after kidney cancer diagnosed in January spread to his brain. As a communist leader, he allowed the first free elections in 1990, which led to Croatia's independence. A decade later, his coalition defeated nationalists and started reforms that set the former Yugoslav republic on the road to European Union membership.
    Racan resigned from all party functions as his cancer advanced and urged the party to choose a new leader, which they will do at a convention in June.The SDP is running neck and neck in opinion polls with the ruling conservative HDZ ahead of an election due in November, but political analysts think Racan's death may seriously damage SDP's electoral chances.
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